Genesis 12:1 – 20 Faith and Trials

Today we meet the first of the Patriarchs, the fathers of our faith, Abram.

Abram was the son of Terah, who was an idol maker – that was his trade. Abram, therefore, would have been brought up worshipping idols and would not have known about Father God. Yet God speaks to him and tells him to leave his home, his father’s house, his people and his country and go to a place Father God will show him, and then He makes a covenant with Abram.

So, Abram just gets up and goes. Now bear in mind that he is 75 years old at this time, he has a wife, a nephew he has adopted because his nephew was orphaned, and many possessions and servants. He takes all these people and things and sets off not knowing where he was going, just trusting in the God Who spoke to him. They walked until they arrived in the land of Canaan, and here God speaks to Abram again and tells him that this is the land He is going to give to Abram’s offspring, so Abram builds an altar to the Lord there.

We don’t know how long he was there, but a famine comes, and Abram decides to go into Egypt to find food but makes his wife Sarai say that she is his sister, so that the Egyptians won’t kill Abram and take Sarai for themselves. He was telling the truth, because Sarai was his half-sister; they had different mothers.

When the Pharaoh’s officials see her, they take her to the Pharaoh’s palace, presumably to become a wife or concubine of the Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh treated Abram very well because of her, and was given sheep, cattle, donkeys, servants and camels. The Lord saw this and sent serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household, and he realises that Sarai is Abram’s wife, so he sends them away.

Abrams faith when he set out was amazing. God spoke, he went! But when a test came, he didn’t do too well. Famine came and instead of trusting Father God to supply for him, he went off in search of food himself.

Are we like that? God gives us a promise, but when the first test comes, we try to do things our own way.

When problems arise for us, as they did for Abram, do we try to solve them ourselves, or do we turn to Father God and ask Him for His guidance?

***

Prayer: Father God, remind me to turn to You today for guidance and help when I need it. Amen

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